Edit
by Madre de Muerte
Summary: One small change hardly changes anything. Cyberwoman re-write


Lisa was dead. Ianto stared down the conversion unit and the remains of his girlfriend for what could have been hours. Eventually Ianto managed to gather himself enough to walk out to the Hub. He didn't know where he had gone wrong but sometime between the morning visit and now. Her body wasn't cold but it had fluctuated between cool and fever hot for months with Lisa barely registering the change. All she had felt was pain.

His hands worked over the dishes the others had left in the sink from the morning. He didn't realize he was done with them until he put them back into to the cupboards. Lisa was still dead. Ianto couldn't work the coffee machine. He turned around ignoring Owen's calls for coffee from the autopsy bay and went back to the bowels of the Hub.

And Lisa was dead. Before Ianto had realized it the pile of files he had set aside for filing were knocked to the ground. He stared at the littered papers and walked over them, ignoring the way they crunched and crinkled underneath his feet.

Had Lisa died alone or had she died in her sleep? He hoped she had been asleep. He hoped that she hadn't been calling out for him in her pain with no one in sight. He hoped she wasn't really gone.

Vain desires and wishes filtered through him faster than he could grasp and all he was left was with an overwhelming sense of despair. Last man standing, that was who he was. Ianto hadn't known the other survivors and they hadn't contacted him in months. All he had left was his sister and Torchwood.

Ianto stood up and walked back into the chamber. Lisa's body lay still and he walked toward her. He looked down at her and wondered for the first time. He had had moments of doubt when Lisa had failed to be her. There had been moments when Lisa had appeared more like a cyberman than herself but he had chalked that up to the constant battle she struggled with against the cybernetics. Now Ianto wondered if she had gone in her fight if the last stage of her life had been her or the cyberman.

Cybermen and Daleks had destroyed Torchwood. Ianto needed to do something about this. He needed to tell Jack. Jack…

Ianto felt something amidst the despair that he couldn't quite label other than it had to do with Jack. He knew the first moment he had seen Jack he had wanted him. It had left more than one night where he had questioned his sexuality but Jack Harkness was not without his reputation, his pheromones. Jack had flirted with him since had been there and now his entire attention was turned to Gwen. Ianto had refused to be jealous but now the simmered undertones came on out and he despaired.

Jack.

Jack would hate him after this. Jack hated Torchwood One and the shit that it had led to. If Lisa had died a cyberman or let it win he would have started the debacle all over again. Jack would hate him. Ianto was sure of it.

He would tell Jack but when the others were gone. Whatever Jack wanted to do to him would happen while the others were not there. He didn't want his shame and humiliation to be public.

Sometime around two he called his sister. He told her goodbye and told her he loved her. She seemed okay not really understanding but if he was going to die he didn't want her to think he hated her. He wondered what his sister would be told if he was executed.

It seemed like forever before everyone left. Since then he had not delivered any coffee and had let them get lunch for themselves. He had washed the dishes, fed the pterodactyl, and made sure the Hub was organized. Before he knew it the Hub was empty though and he was left with the trickle of water and beeps of electronics. Jack was in his office working on something.

Ianto made his way up, dread filling his belly like a stone. Jack looked up as he approached his office. Ianto swallowed and opened his mouth. He couldn't say it. Ianto licked his lips and tried again. Jack gave him an impatient look.

"Coffee?" Jack shook his head.

"No, not now just need to finish this." He looked up at Ianto. "Go home,"

"Almost done with something in the archives. I'll be coming in tomorrow late though."

"That's fine. If there's an emergency we'll call you." Ianto nodded the unvoiced 'though we most likely won't' rang in the air. Ianto wasn't needed in the field and hardly for an emergency other than to pack. Nonetheless he just nodded and left. He needed to dispose of Lisa's body. He needed to get rid of that. The rest could wait but he had to get rid of her before she began decomposing. He didn't want anyone to find her and take her away.

The incinerator destroyed what was left of Lisa. Ianto would need to come back for the ashes once it cooled down enough. Ianto knew the Hub inside out physically while he didn't know about the mechanics of it he was sure that something was tracking the power usage. He didn't know if Jack was monitoring it or not, remotely or near by. The conversion unit and other devices would need more heat, more energy. Maybe he could stage them in a warehouse or something. Anonymously report it to the police who would then contact Torchwood.

It wouldn't really make a difference. His time at Torchwood Three was made up mostly of lies; a few more couldn't possibly hurt. Lies. Ianto staged bodies and crime scenes regularly; he could stage the dumping of a conversion unit. He'd need to clean them, get rid of his and Lisa's fingerprints. The team had a scheduled outing at a pub nearby in a few days. That would give Ianto enough time to move the unit.

The smaller parts he could move out before then. The majority of it could go in the dead of night or during the team's outing. He didn't care of he got caught but he wasn't about to let the get Lisa. She would go home to her parents in ashes.

The incinerator died down. Ianto collected Lisa's ashes with shaking hands and willed himself not to cry. This wasn't the time. Ianto made sure the room Lisa had spent the last few weeks was dark and looked unused before he left. He'd start on his plan in the morning.

---

When Jack got the call from the police about strange technology reported at a warehouse he thought it was probably some discarded machinery that someone had mistaken for advanced technology. It happened from time to time but he had an obligation to investigate in case it did turn out to be something alien.

When he and Owen had stepped into the warehouse, guarded by a few PCs against crooks who would steal it for scrap metal, the last thing he had expected to see was a conversion unit in a disarray but mostly intact. Owen was livid when he saw it, calling it wrong. Cursing whoever brought it there and Jack couldn't agree anymore. Whoever had been stupid enough to play with one would most likely personally meet the end of his revolver.

However the first thing they needed to do was get rid of it. Destroy all of it and make sure nothing was left, absolutely nothing.

"Owen, get Gwen and Tosh down here." Jack barked as he walked toward the machinery.

"Jack, what are you doing?" Owen said, fear and wariness in his voice.

"Making sure it's off." He said as he scanned it with one of Tosh's handy scanners and soon followed by his vortex manipulator. Owen stood a bit away, looking as if the thing was about to turn on any minute.

"Well?"

"It's off, and broken."

"Thank shite for that." Owen said relieved.

"You call Gwen and Tosh yet?" Jack asked annoyed. 

"Yeah. Ianto's getting the incinerator ready." Jack froze the moment the words left his mouth. Owen looked grim.

"Owen, as a doctor what do you think this will do to Ianto?" He motioned to the machine.

"Not good, I don't know how he's held out so long but the last days he's been showing signs of depression. I haven't been able to get a good look at him. I don't know where he is half the time." Owen replied. Jack shook his head. 

"What do you recommend we do?" Jack said.

"Get this thing back to the Hub and send teaboy packing before he gets a good look at it."

"Did you tell Tosh what it was?" Jack asked wondering if they'd have to deal with another unstable teammate so soon after Lisa.

"No, just incase someone's overhearing,"

"I've never been so relieved about your paranoia," Jack replied as he rolled his eyes. Owen probably just told them to get the incinerator burning and to come down.

"Whatever, let's just start getting rid of it."

"Yeah, we'll deal with Ianto when we get there." Jack replied as he neared the device with caution.

-

Ianto looked at the fire and knew he was shaking. The incinerator was so hot he could feel the heat at the far side of the room. The energy needed to make it this hot was enormous, someone would have noticed it, could have. Too many unpredictable scenarios. Ianto had been wrong with Lisa, had let her die alone.

Despite missing her Ianto wasn't suicidal. He had family; he didn't want to die. He couldn't risk making another mistake and ending up dead or retconned because despite the pain he wanted Lisa with him the rest of his life. No matter how short it was.

So Ianto answered Jack in confusion when he was told to go home after he had assured him that the incinerator was at its hottest setting. He went home, went to bed and thought about Lisa while Jack melted and destroyed the conversion unit.

A week later Owen diagnosed him with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and had him take a medical leave. He hadn't argued it. He was back a month later. As for the rest, the rest just followed the script.


End file.
